After Tartarus
by didnotthinkofthat
Summary: After getting out of Tartarus, Percy and Annabeth quickly realize that they'll have no chance to get a break just yet. A long with the rest of the seven of the Prophesy they have to stop the Romans' attack on Camp Half-Blood.
1. Chapter 1

**For a long time I've played with the different ways stuff could happen in HoH, and now I finally feel ready to post the story about how I think it would happen if Percy and Annabeth got out of Tartarus before the Argo II headed towards CHB.  
I hope you enjoy it ^.^**

**Percy's POV **

Percy didn't feel like running anymore, but on the other hand, he really didn't feel like fighting either – that's all he'd been doing for the gods knows how long time; running, fighting, running, sleeping, fighting, running, eating, fighting, running …

He and Annabeth hadn't had enough rest for Annabeth's ankle to heal, and Percy had spend a lot of time half-carrying, half-dragging Annabeth through Tartarus.

They had been chased by monsters almost all the time since they woke up in Tartarus; chased by everything from the Minotaur to a drakon to some Cyclops.

Percy wouldn't be surprised if someone told him, that he and Annabeth had been fighting all monsters from the Greek mythology.

A part of him always expected to see Kronos wherever he looked, but fortunately Kronos hadn't shown up, yet.

Suddenly Annabeth stopped running, forcing Percy to stop up, too, since he had his arms around her waist and Annabeth her arms around his neck.

"Annabeth, come on," Percy said, his eyes looking after monsters. "We gotta keep running."

"I can't anymore!" Annabeth had tears in her eyes. She was biting her lips, which she only did when she was in deep pain.

Percy looked at Annabeth's ankle for two seconds before looking back at her face. "Right. Why don't we sit down here for some time?" He suggested while pulling Annabeth gently towards the wall.

"No," Annabeth said. She opened her mouth slightly as if she was going to say something more, but was interrupted by Percy.

"There's no way I'm leaving you," he protested. "Not now when we've come this far!"

"Please, Percy," Annabeth pleaded. "Go."

Percy was just about to answer as they started to hear some noise. They both froze and stared towards the noise. Soon a big group of telkhines appeared in the darkness. Percy was sure that there were over 30 of them.

"Run!" Annabeth shouted.

Percy knew that she wanted him to leave her there, but he didn't attend to do that. He placed Annabeth's arm around his neck, and placed his arm around her waist. Annabeth didn't even bother to protest, and together they started running.

Percy didn't know how long time they had run before Annabeth cried his name over the noise of the telkhines. She was pointing at something, but Percy couldn't see what she was pointing at.

"Look!" she cried.

While running, Percy kept focusing at the spot Annabeth pointed at. Was that … light? Seeing the light gave him new energy. He bended down and wrapped his arms around her legs and placed her on his shoulder. The he started running faster than ever towards the light, carrying Annabeth over his shoulder,

The light grew bigger and bigger and suddenly Annabeth started laughing; it was a hysterical and relieved laugh. Percy couldn't help but to laugh, too.

After so long time surrounded in endless darkness and cliffs and tons of monsters, Percy and Annabeth finally saw light and Percy was eager to get out there; get out and finally feel the sun on his skin, and finally seeing Annabeth's face clearly again.

"Percy! Annabeth!" a girl's voice cried and Percy soon realized it came from the light. He and Annabeth speeded up.

As Percy and Annabeth came closer to the light, he could see that it was doors – the Doors of Death.

Percy put Annabeth down as they reached the doors. Nico ran towards them. "I'm sorry," he said before he pushed Percy and Annabeth out and started sealing the doors from Tartarus, while Jason did it from the other side.

It all happened so fast, that neither Annabeth nor Percy could react.

"Why ..?" Annabeth started choked. She didn't seem to be able to finish the question, but Jason understood.

"He chose it. He said that he should be the one sealing the doors from the inside."

Percy leaned against the doors while catching his breath. "But he's just a kid!"

"We tried to make him change his mind, but he's too stubborn!" Piper said softly. "There was nothing we could do."

"He kept saying that we weren't meant to close the doors from the inside," Hazel murmured.

They stood there in silence for a few minutes. Then Jason said carefully, "Look, I know it's terrible that Nico is in there right now, and I know he meant a lot to you, but we should get going."

Annabeth and Percy had a silent conversation, and then they both nodded.

* * *

The crew decided to plan their next move before Annabeth and Percy got some rest, so they could let them get as much rest as they needed without losing time.

The others gave Annabeth and Percy some update about what had been happening while they'd been in Tartarus (according to the others Percy and Annabeth had been there for almost two weeks), but there was really only one thing they dwelled on – the fact that the Romans still were on their way to Camp Half-Blood, if they weren't already there, fighting.

"So the Romans could be attacking Camp Half-Blood right now, as we speak?" Percy tried to keep his voice calm.

"Uhm … yes?" Frank answered insecure.

"How long time would it take to get there?" asked Annabeth.

Leo thought for a short moment before answering. "Since we're in Epirus, we could get there on 8 hours, if we're fast – I mean, really, really fast."

"Then why are we still sitting here?" Annabeth demanded with a high-pitched voice. "Get this ship to the camp as fast as possible!"

Leo didn't let Annabeth tell him that twice. He ran to the control room, and soon they could feel the ship take off.

Hazel looked at Annabeth and Percy with a concerned expression on her face. "You two should get some sleep. As it seem now you'll barely get 8 hours rest."

Percy tried to protest, but none of the others, except Annabeth, believed that he could do much good without getting some sleep.

"Go!" Piper demanded. "Now!"

* * *

**Okay, so this was the first chapter. I don't know how many chapters this could end up in (that depends on how much I can get out of this start), but I'm sure that there'll be at least one more chapter. After that we'll just have to see.****  
**

**I'll try to update this story as fast as possible ^.^**

**See ya later, guys!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Piper's POV**

During the next 7 hours, Piper just wandered around the deck, knowing that there was no way she could sleep even though she probably needed it.

The moment when Percy and Annabeth finally came in sight inside Tatarus, running towards the doors with Annabeth's arm around Percy's neck and his arm around Annabeth's waist kept replaying in her mind over and over again.

At the moment she first saw them clearly at the doors, she'd thought that they had taken the saying "looking terrible" to a whole new level. They had looked haunted, tired, and weak and yet, at the same time, they'd also looked stronger than ever, as if there was nothing in the world they couldn't handle.

Annabeth and Percy had both had bruises and scratches, and their clothes had been torn and at least as filled with dirt as their skin had been.

The joy that had exploded inside of Piper had soon been erased by terror when Nico had closed the doors from the inside. She had known all along that I was the plan, but there was still at big side of her that agreed with Percy; Nico was just a kid. He had only been 13 years old!

_No, _Piper thought as she brushed some hair behind her ears. _Nico might not be dead, yet. Don't you dare think of him as if he is!_

She knew that the chances of Nico surviving Tartarus for more than two weeks would be between slim to none. He hadn't been able to recover enough from last time through the last couple of weeks to once again survive in Tartarus. At least not for long.

Piper's thought were interrupted when Leo, who was the only other person on Argo II who was sleeping, came running over to her. "Festus says that he can sense land not very far from here."

"America?" Piper frowned. "How long time have we been flying?"

"For almost seven hours," Leo replied. "Look, would you mind waking up the others? I need to make sure this ship doesn't get out of course."

"Sure," Piper said and sighed. She looked at the horizon, then she went to wake the others.

* * *

"So what's the plan?" Piper asked, half an hour later, when everyone was finally gathered. And with "everyone", Piper meant everyone except Coach Hedge who was busy watching baseball in his room.

It hadn't taken long time for her to wake all the others, and it hadn't taken long time for them to get ready, either.

Percy looked at her, quizzed, though since he still hadn't taken a bath or changed clothes since he came out of Tartarus, he looked bewildered.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Well, we do need to have a plan," said Jason, who was sitting beside Piper.

Piper looked at Annabeth, who, just like Percy, hadn't taken a bath or changed clothes. "You've got any ideas?"

Annabeth looked at Percy for a moment. To Piper it kind of looked like they had a silent conversation even though neither of them spoke.

Finally Annabeth spoke up. "We do what Percy and I always do."

"And what is that, exactly?" asked Leo and motioned for Annabeth to elaborate.

"We improvise," Percy said.

The whole crew stared at Percy and Annabeth in disbelief.

Frank was the first one to speak. "We're talking about stopping a war between the two camps and you two want us to _improvise._"

"That's just suicide," Leo murmured.

"Look," Percy said. "Annabeth and I have never really had a plan. We didn't have any plan when we had to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt –"

"Neither did we have a plan when we went to the sea of monsters to get the fleece," Annabeth added. "Nor when we were in the labyrinth."

"And we definitely improvised when we fought against Kronos' army," Percy said.

"A lot," Annabeth murmured.

Jason stared at Percy with raised eyebrows. "I start to wonder how you're still alive."

"I think you can thank me for that." Annabeth gave a short, depressed laugh.

Percy snorted. "Then where were you, when I was chased by skeletons or when I was fighting the Minotaur."

Annabeth ignored Percy's comment and looked at the others with a sincere look on her face. "The point is that we'll survive with or without a plan."

"And we all know that if we make a plan now, nothing will go after that plan," Percy said and ran his hands through his jet black hair.

Piper noticed that the only one around the table was Hazel; she just looked down at the table. Piper didn't blame her. The girl had just lost her brother the day before.

"Well –" Frank begun, but was interrupted by a loud CREAK.

Leo ran out of the door to the deck, and after a few moments his head appeared by the door. "I think you guys would want to see this."

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other with wide eyes for a few seconds before storming out the door, followed by Jason, Piper, Frank and Hazel.

They all leaned over the side where Leo stood. Piper got surprised when she realized they were less than one kilometer from Camp Half-Blood.

But the joy of almost being back was ruined by the fight that was going on all over the camp.

Piper closed her eyes and opened in hope that the fight had been something she'd imagined, but unfortunately it seemed to be very real.

"I don't know about you," Hazel said, her voice sounding weak. "But I think right now would be the time to go and dress up for war."

"Hazel's right," agreed Jason. "This could get very ugly."

* * *

Piper wasn't sure what she had expected to see when they came back to the camp, but it sure wasn't the hunters, the nature spirits and the satyrs fighting side by side the Greek campers against the Roman campers.

Though she immediately felt stupid. Of course they would fight besides the Greeks!

Nobody seemed to notice Piper, Leo, Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Hazel, Frank and Coach Hedge as they climbed down to earth (or, in Jason's case: flew).

Not even when Piper cried out that they had to stop fighting with her best charmspeak, nobody reacted.

Suddenly the earth shook, and Piper had to fight to stay standing.

When the earthquake stopped everybody was quiet. Nobody moved at all. Piper looked around to figure out who could've caused the earthquake.

Then she remembered that there was only one person who could've done it, since the god of earthquake was also the sea god.

**Okay, so I have no idea when the next chapter will be up, but I'm pretty sure it'll be during the next couple of weeks, but I'll be really busy do once again idk. I'll try to get it up as fast as possible, but I just can't make myself write faster than my imagination can create the storyline, sorry.**

**Anyways. I hope you liked this chapter c:**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm so sorry it took so long for me to update, but I fell stuck for a long time -.-**

**Unfortunately that happens to writers sometimes (Gods, it would be easy writing if it didn't).**

**Annabeth's POV**

Percy glared from demigod to demigod to hunter to satyr. "Are we done?"

Annabeth couldn't help but admire Percy's leadership. She'd seen him acting like a true leader loads of times, but she had never seen him causing such a massive effect. Nobody said anything or even moved.

"Thanks," Percy said. "Now would you _please _just listen for a second?"

It was clearly not a question; it was more like an order, and nobody disobeyed – not even Octavian or Reyna.

Annabeth's eyes scanned the reaction of all the demigods, hunters, satyrs and nymphs around her. Her eyes stopped first at Grover, then Thalia and then some of the other familiar faces from her camp. A lot of them looked like they had tons of questions for Percy. Thalia mostly looked like the wanted to punch Percy for disappearing for so long time.

Percy took a deep breath. Then he turned towards Reyna, who'd appeared among the Roman demigods. "Reyna, by attacking this camp you're doing exactly what Gaea expects you to. She doesn't want the Romans and the Greeks working together, cause that is the only thing that can stop her: us working together."

"Your friend destroyed our camp! You Greeks started this!" Reyna said.

Leo appeared next to Percy. "I was possessed by an eidolon!"

"That is no excuse!" Octavian said. "Somebody needs to pay –"

"And that _somebody_ shouldn't be Leo," Percy interrupted. "I swore on my life that they wouldn't attack, therefore I should be the one to pay if that would be satisfaction enough for you."

To Annabeth's relief Reyna hesitated. Then she finally spoke. "We _will _hold you to your words later on, but right now you and your friends seem to have something important to tell us."

For some reason Annabeth hadn't expected to hear Reyna say that, and judging from Jason and Percy's faces, they hadn't, either.

Percy quickly regained composure. He motioned for Annabeth to explain.

"Okay. We all know the 2nd great prophesy, right? For the Romans it would be the Prophesy of the Seven," Annabeth said. "As it seems we have to fight as a team against Gaea and her giants."

"And to kill a giant demigods and gods have to work together," Piper added before Annabeth spoke again.

"Exactly, and if the gods are to be capable of fighting, we – Greeks and Romans – have to call a truce at least until this war is over, so the gods will stop changing from Greek to Roman and from Roman to Greek." Annabeth looked around just to make sure everybody understood. "I think that was it."

Clarisse raised an eyebrow. "That's it? No brilliant Athena-worthy plan?"

"Well, we haven't exactly had much time to figure that out since Percy and I have been quite … busy," Annabeth said, trying to find the right word.

"Which, I guess, that the thing you've been 'busy' with also explains why you and Percy are so dirty and bruised and tired?" Thalia said, sounding sarcastic.

Annabeth caught Percy's eyes.

_Should we tell them?_ his eyes seemed to ask.

_You think now would be a good time? _she said without a sound.

Percy frowned for a few seconds and then he raised his shoulders. _How should I know? _he seemed to say. Annabeth smiled at little.

"Seaweed Brain," she muttered. There was a reason why she had started calling him that to begin with, and he definitely still deserved the nickname.

"Hey!" Percy protested. "It was a fair question!"

Annabeth hadn't realized that she had spoken loud enough for anybody else to hear. "Well, what do you think?" she asked out loud, knowing that everybody had noticed their conversation anyway.

"I don't think it would hurt," Percy said after a short hesitation. "They're gonna find out later on anyway."

His eyes quickly flickered towards the ship, just to let Annabeth know what he meant.

"Tell us what?" Reyna asked, sounding a little impatient.

"Start from the beginning," Percy told Annabeth.

Annabeth looked at him with pain in her eyes: this was going to be hard and painful. "Okay, then," she begun with a little hesitation in her voice. "Before I left to find Percy at Camp Jupiter, Athena contacted me … or well, she wasn't really Athena. I think she was more Minerva-like. Anyways, she gave me this coin – the mark of Athena – and told me to follow it. Later on I realized that she the only thing that could stop the fight between the Romans and Greeks would be the Athena Parthenos, and I guess that it would be where the mark led to."

Annabeth stopped speaking for a moment, trying to figure out how to tell the rest of the story. Then after a minute or so she spoke again: "I went for the Parthenos alone in Rome. And I found it."

She stopped as she could hear a lot of murmuring around – especially from the Athena kids.

"But," she said before anyone could say anything, "of course Arachne was guarding the Parthenos. The quest would've been way too easy if she hadn't. I tried to talk to her and ended up tricking her to making her own trap from the web she had used to cover up the Parthenos. That's when the other came to my rescue. The Parthenos was too heavy for the floor so it started cracking. I told the others to get the Parthenos, and they did.

But as the floor cracked Arachne falls into the chasm in the cave. Suddenly I started to fall with her. Hazel pointed out that there's a spider web attached to my ankle. Percy managed to crap my hand before I fall into the chasm with Arachne.

I told Percy to let go of me, cause I knew it would be impossible for Percy to save me. He refused. He told Nico to lead the others to the doors of death, and that we would meet them there. Then, after Nico finally agrees, Percy let go of the ledge and Percy and I both fell down into the chasm."

"The chasm led strait to Tartarus," Percy said after Annabeth had made it clear that she wouldn't say more.

At Percy's words everyone started to speak at the same time. The Greeks and some Romans looked horrified, while the rest of the Romans didn't look like they believed the story.

Percy waited until everybody was silent – which would say almost 15 minutes – before speaking. "Annabeth and I went through Tartarus, chased by monsters, for two weeks just because Annabeth believed that the Parthenos could stop the fight between the Greeks and the Romans."

"Wait," Thalia said. "Where's Nico even?"

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other, neither of them wanting to tell Thalia where her cousin was.

"He volunteered to close the doors of death from Tartarus," Jason explained after some time. "We tried to talk him from it, but he's really stubborn. He believed that all the others of us would be needed."

Thalia suddenly looked pale. She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

"Look," Percy said calmly. "Annabeth and I did not go through Tartarus and Nico didn't close those doors from Tartarus just so you guys could keep on fighting."

Annabeth looked at Leo. "Show them the Parthenos."

Leo didn't hesitate on second. He dragged Jason and Frank over to the Argo II and together the three of them managed to get the Parthenos out of the ship.

The statue was just as Annabeth had remembered – if not even more glorious. And Annabeth couldn't help but once again notice how much it actually looked like Athena.

Everybody was silent for a long time until an Athena camper suddenly asked: "What now?"

"Honestly," Annabeth said frustrated. "I don't know."

"We fight Gaea," Percy announced. Then he looked at Reyna. "As a team. If the Romans accept, that is."

Reyna didn't hesitate for long. "The Romans accept."

Before anyone could react Octavian decided to protest, much to Annabeth annoyance. "This is disgraceful! Romans to fight beside Greeks! We fight _against _them!"

One look from Reyna was enough to close Octavian's big mouth.

Percy tried to hide a smile. Then he walked over to Reyna and held out his hand for her to take. After a few seconds she took it.

"As a team it is," Percy said.

**Okay, guys! I have no idea where I'm going with this story really, so this will be the last chapter. So sorry!**

**Anyways, if I finally find out where I wanna go I'll just have to make a sequel or anything.**

**Thanks for reading, following, favoriting and reviewing.**


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